H eadlines
RRC Names First Jew of Color to Lead College
L OCA L
ELEANOR LINAFELT | JE STAFF
AMANDA BECKENSTEIN
Mbuvi, who was recently
appointed vice president
of academic affairs for the
Reconstructionist Rabbinical
College, is the first Jew of
color to lead a major rabbin-
ical college.

And Mbuvi plans to bring
her breadth of experience as
a Hebrew Bible professor and
nonprofit manager to build
community, support students
and foster diversity. She hopes to
encourage students to embrace
the wide range of Jewish
experiences. “One of the things I’m most
excited to do is to continue to
promote inclusivity,” she said.

“We want to make sure that
rabbis are ready to deal with
the full diversity of the Jewish
community.” Rabbi Deborah Waxman,
the president and CEO of
Reconstructing Judaism, the
central organization of the
Reconstructionist movement
— of which the RRC is a part
— was drawn to Mbuvi’s vision.

“She’s incredibly committed
8 JULY 1, 2021
to building lasting relation-
ships with people on their own
terms, across differences, in the
service of building community,”
Waxman said. “That’s going to
serve us incredibly well.”
Most recently, Mbuvi was an
assistant professor of religion at
High Point University, where she
helped establish their first minor
in Jewish studies. Her academic
work focuses on race, commu-
nity and diversity.

“As a Bible professor, she
cares deeply about the texts and
the stories and the wisdom of
the past, and she’s also intensely
interested in how they can inform
us in the community-building,
relationship-building and justice
work that we’re doing in the
world,” Waxman said.

After training as an academic
Amanda Beckenstein Mbuvi
Courtesy of Reconstructing Judaism
and before returning to teaching,
Mbuvi managed a nonprofit
literacy program.

One of the things I’m most excited to do is to continue to promote
“She was very interested in
the practical implications of her inclusivity. We want to make sure that rabbis are ready to deal with the
academic training and she wanted
full diversity of the Jewish community.”
to make a difference for people in
the world,” Waxman said. “I’m AMANDA BECKENSTEIN MBUVI
interested both in the practical
administrative skills that she stakes are high for people.”
the classroom as a communal challenges students to think about
gained in that work and also that
Waxman noted how Mbuvi’s endeavor.”
tradition in a new way.

translation from the theoretical values complement those of
As vice president of academic
“Students aren’t just studying
into the living reality where the the RRC and Reconstructing affairs, Mbuvi will oversee tradition and assuming its impli-
Judaism. all aspects of the rabbinical cations are more or less obvious,
“Our tagline is ‘Deeply program, which includes super- but rather studying the context in
rooted, boldly relevant,’ and vising faculty, advising students which we encounter those tradi-
that is how she moves through and implementing the RRC’s tions,” she said. “That enables
the world — with reverence new curriculum. She also will students to be really effective in
and with keen awareness of collaborate with Reconstructing engaging people where they are
relevance,” she said.

Judaism’s other programs.

and helping them to discover
Mbuvi’s first formative experi-
Waxman is confident about the relevance of tradition in their
ence of Jewish communal life was Mbuvi’s ability to manage the context.”
in a Conservative synagogue with RRC’s new curriculum, which
After a year filled with collec-
a Reconstructionist rabbi.

centers rabbinic training in the tive upheaval, Mbuvi also thinks
“In that sense, certain field, emphasizes community that learning to adjust to the
elements of the Reconstructionist building and offers more oppor- change in curriculum will be a
approach are baked into how I tunities for remote work.

positive learning experience for
approach Judaism,” she said.

“[Mbuvi] will help us ensure the RRC’s students.

She said that she also that we remain interconnected
“This process of adapting into
developed similar “cultural affin- and ensure that relationships are a shifting curriculum is really
ities” with the Reconstructionist still at the center of the kind of helpful for thinking about how
movement primarily through community that we’re building, to live with change and learning
her teaching.

even if it looks different than it how to lead with change,” she
said. “That’s something the
“I put a strong emphasis used to,” Waxman said.

on co-creation,” she said. “I
Mbuvi is particularly excited students will all face, wherever
think about what happens in about the way that the curriculum their paths take them.” l
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H EADLINES
BUSINESS DIRECTORY
Philly Faces: Faryn Borella
P H I LLY FACES
ERIC SCHUCHT | JE FEATURE
FARYN BORELLA, 29, of
Philadelphia is looking to eff ect
change on a systemic level.

The rabbinical student
grew up in Londonderry,
Vermont, and studies at the
Reconstructionist Rabbinical
College in Wyncote. In August,
she’ll start work as the eco-Ju-
daism rabbinic intern at
Oseh Shalom Synagogue, a
Reconstructionist congregation
in Laurel, Maryland.

In this new role, over the
next 10 months Borella will
assist with Shabbat services,
lead the children’s Sukkot
and Tu B’Shevat activities and
organize a congregational
camping trip. Th e goal is to
off er more outdoor program-
ming and opportunities for
ecological Jewish education at
the synagogue.

So why did you want to do this
internship? Rabbi Daria [Jacobs-Velde]
and Rabbi Josh [Jacobs-Velde]
had a vision that came out of
their previous involvement
in Wilderness Torah in the
Bay Area in California. I was
involved in diff erent Jewish
farms and Jewish outdoor
education programs and came
from a similar world and just
really value both reclaiming
more ancient Jewish practices
that are rooted in natural
cycles of time and in paying
attention to the outdoors.

And I also just generally
fi nd the outdoors to be a
place where I get my spiritual
resource and want to share
that resource with other people
as well.

What are you looking to
accomplish in this internship?
I’ve done
work in
synagogues, and I’ve done work
doing Jewish outdoor educa-
tion, but that’s never been the
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM held close in my Jewish
upbringing. So why do you want to
become a rabbi?
I started tossing around
the idea in my early 20s when
I was getting really involved
in activism from a Jewish
perspective. And I was in the
process of discerning and
ultimately decided no, but
simultaneously became a
Jewish educator, and started
leading a lot of Jewish rituals,
both in movements, and
also in synagogues, and also
outside of institutions. And I
Faryn Borella
Courtesy of Faryn Borella was falling into a lot of spiri-
tual care type of roles.

And I was just noticing
same work. And when I was
interviewing, what everyone all the work that I’m already
on the committee and I felt starting to do, community
really excited about was, what organizing, emotional support
does it look like to bring the and spiritual care, ritual
leadership — those are all roles
outdoors into the synagogue?
Th is is something where I could hold as a rabbi. And to
you’re introducing outdoor be a rabbi is to be trained to
Jewish programming to an hold that and so much more.

existing community that might
not be asking for it or looking How do you see yourself as
for it. And what does it look like a Jewish person, and how do
to bring that with a humility you express that?
I feel like I’ve been getting a
and a reverence, to what the
community has already built lot of refl ections lately, that I feel
like a bit of a paradox, because
together? there’s a lot of parts of me that
What was it like growing up are very interested in stringency
and obligation and that notion
Jewish in rural Vermont?
Th ere was a synagogue, of being really bound. But then I
fortunately, that was about 20 also am very politically progres-
minutes away from the town sive and really also embrace
I grew up in. It served a pretty cultic practices of ancient Israel
wide geographical area, and it that might not fi t within the
just really felt like home to me. stringency of Judaism as we see
We were just integrated into this it today. But I love praying the
really small Jewish community full liturgy but doing it lying
and it was so central to our down or dancing and really
lives, but I didn’t really know pulling what’s traditional with
that there was more to Judaism what’s really innovative and new.

And so I feel like I embody
than that, like I didn’t know
about Jewish summer camps this, this paradox of being in
or Jewish Federation or these love with what’s old, but also
wanting to bring my whole self
larger Jewish networks.

Judaism is this beautiful and my whole body to it and all
small community that I get to of its complexity. ●
be a part of. And I’m grateful
for that. I’m grateful for being Eric Schucht is a staff writer at the
really empowered, but also Washington Jewish Week.

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